Quality Goes the Distance

Seafield Logistics is a third party logistics company with a committed attitude to quality, underlined by the fact that it is currently in the process of obtaining ISO 14001, whilst its Guyhirn depot is going for BRC accreditation.

Moreover, in 2011 the company opened a brand new 50,000ft2 facility in Winsford, dictating that it can now offer an even broader range of premium services for the food industry.

Owned by venture capitalists since 2003, the company now has 15 operating centres in England and one in Scotland from where if offers a wide portfolio of services, ranging from the bulk delivery of sand, through to the delivery of soda ash in tankers and steel from Scunthorpe to the ambient transport of food products. Transport is provided by the company’s own 140 vehicles (it has just invested in a further 11 vehicles) plus around £8 million of sub-contracted haulage. The company does make some deliveries of non-food and drink goods to Germany and France and, in conjunction with a partner provides transport services for the food industry in Ireland.

Looking at the food side, all of the goods handled are done so at ambient temperature. The company has a number of prestigious names amongst its clients, including Premier Foods, Tommy Tucker and Nestlé. One of Seafield’s major food contracts is with Kinnerton Confectionery, the largest independent UK company operating in the field of childrens’ and adult confectionery novelties, and the first confectioner in the world to offer chocolates that are manufactured in a nut segregated zone in its manufacturing plant in Fakenham, Norfolk.

Managing Director, Mark Strong, explains, “We move both raw materials and finished products for Kinnerton through our Guyhirn distribution centre, between Peterborough and Wisbech, where we have a 200,000ft2 warehouse. We have chillers in the warehouse and, if there are problems with very high ambient temperatures we can control the temperature in store and then move the raw materials and finished products at night, when it is cooler. This year we picked up an important new contract from confectionery manufacturer, Tommy Tucker.”

This company has manufacturing sites in Nottinghamshire and under the terms of the contract, Seafield stores pallets of finished popcorn, sweets, popping corn and oils at the Worksop warehouse and then distributes about 150 loads of finished popcorn to Odeon and Vue cinemas nationwide. Seafield also receive two bulk deliveries a week of popping corn from the USA, which are then transferred to Tommy Tucker’s manufacturing sites in Worksop and Retford.

For Premier Foods, factory in Worksop, Seafield keeps the production lines going by taking in raw materials from the suppliers, warehousing them in Worksop and then delivering them to the production lines on a Just-in-Time basis.
The company is also currently working for Saga Shipping on a project that revolves around the re-fitting of a ship that is currently docked in Sicily. Buyers for Saga Shipping are scouring the UK for a variety of products needed, and Seafield Logistics are storing, picking and arranging transport for them. The latter is possible because in 2011 it acquired a small freight forwarding company, Distribution Investments Limited. Things are going well too: so well, in fact, that Saga Shipping is already talking about two potential further projects.

Mark Strong explains, “In terms of the future, our marketing strategy is to stay within the fields of our expertise, such as ambient temperature distribution. We believe that we can offer corporate standards of service coupled with and supported by the high level of flexibility that comes from being a smaller, tighter operation. We are looking to put more flags on the map through organic growth, by acquisition and by winning new business. Wherever possible this will be through a combination of warehousing and distribution – the best solution for us and for the customer!”

For further information telephone 01909 471502.